VANCOUVER, British Columbia — In one of the worst episodes of rioting Canada has seen in decades, hockey fans angry over losing the Stanley Cup clashed with police officers, set vehicles ablaze, smashed windows and looted and burned stores throughout the downtown area here on Wednesday night.

The Vancouver Coastal Health authority said that one person was in critical condition and that up to 139 others were treated at two downtown hospitals. Many had suffered tear gas exposure, the authority said, but there were at least eight stabbings, some cases of major trauma, and “head injuries, fractures and cuts.”

The riots stunned the police, the city and the nation, all of which had recalled rioting after the Vancouver Canucks’ defeat in the 1994 finals to the New York Rangers. The provincial government had ordered all liquor stores downtown closed in the afternoon before the last two games. The police had put a $1.3 million security plan in place, and issued repeated assurances that there would be no repeat.

But Thursday night, with the last game of the Stanley Cup finals drawing to a close and the home team trailing 4-0, some of the estimated 100,000 fans watching the game on giant televisions in free public viewing areas downtown began a four-hour rampage, leaving a trail of destruction, looting and violence that far outstripped the melees of 17 years ago.

Vancouver’s mayor, Gregor Robertson, blamed “a small group of people intent on breaking the law and smearing the reputation of the city,” but images from the riot show that many of the people looting, destroying property and fighting were wearing hockey jerseys and did not cover their faces to avoid identification.

The police and Mr. Robertson said that video images and photos would be used to track down and punish rioters.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful and shameful and by no means represents the city of Vancouver,” the mayor said. “We’ve had a great run in the playoffs here, great celebrations, and what’s happened tonight is despicable.”

One amateur video sent to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation showed a man trying to stop rioters from breaking into a department store. He was swiftly thrown to the ground by a crowd and kicked and beaten. The extent of the man’s injuries are unknown.

Alyssa Polinsky, a spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health, said that St. Paul’s Hospital had treated five people with stab wounds and Vancouver General Hospital had treated three for similar wounds. St. Paul’s Hospital reported treating about 60 people in its emergency room in a two-hour span for pepper spray and tear gas exposure and other injuries. Dr. Eric Grafstein, head of emergency there, said that those requiring surgery included fractured ankles and legs, a broken jaw and a collapsed lung.

Photo

Fans of the Vancouver Canucks watched an overturned pickup truck burn during riots in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, after Game 7.Credit
Anthony Bolante/Reuters

The police declared some of downtown a riot zone, giving them sweeping powers of arrest, and officers used pepper spray, tear gas and flash bombs to move thousands of people who had ignored directives to leave immediately. Police units from surrounding municipalities — some from as far away as Abbotsford, some 40 miles to the southeast — were called in as well as members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Inside Rogers Arena, the mood briefly turned ugly during the postgame trophy presentations, although that anger was aimed mostly at the National Hockey League commissioner, Gary Bettman, a man widely disliked in Canada for his perceived indifference to the concerns of the league’s Canadian teams.

As Mr. Bettman walked onto the ice on a red carpet to present the Conn Smythe Trophy to the Bruins goalie Tim Thomas and the Stanley Cup to Boston’s captain, Zdeno Chara, the commissioner’s voice was drowned out by booing from many of the roughly 10,000 fans who remained. Several drinks were hurled onto the ice near where Mr. Bettman was standing, but none struck him.

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The C.B.C.’s television coverage shifted quickly from the Bruins’ postgame celebrations at the arena to the disturbances outside. The C.B.C. showed images of young men leaping on police cruisers, trying to shatter their windshields, and hurling debris at police trucks. Some police cars were set on fire.

Bonfires were set on street corners as groups of people, many in Canucks jerseys, threw temporary fencing at officers in riot gear. A mounted police squad tried to regain control among a cluster of federal buildings, while unrest spread to the Granville Mall nightclub zone and the Robson Street shopping district.

Not far from the Sutton Place Hotel, the N.H.L.’s headquarters during the Stanley Cup finals, people were seen running with electronics and a reporter was offered a camera, with price tags still on it, for purchase.

Service on the SkyTrain, the city’s subway and elevated train service, was disrupted for hours, and buses and ferry service to downtown was also shut down. Bridges leading into downtown were closed; fires burned while fire crews waited for the police restore order. Some firefighters trying to fight blazes were attacked and forced to retreat.

Major sports-related violence is relatively rare in Canada. In Montreal in 1955, there were riots after the N.H.L. suspended Maurice Richard, Quebec’s greatest hockey hero, after he was involved in a violent confrontation with a member of the Boston Bruins. That city has seen other hockey riots, if on a smaller scale, since then including one in 2008.

In contrast, the mood in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics was peaceful, even though thousands of people were in the streets to celebrate each victory for Team Canada on its path to the men’s hockey gold medal. The city earned worldwide praise for its good-natured hockey fans and for the restraint of its police.

“We were just on the world stage during the Olympics, and people were speaking highly of Vancouver,” said Geoff Matthews, 34, who lives downtown. “It’s a great city and country to live in, and to see this, it’s heartbreaking.”

Gerald Narciso contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B15 of the New York edition with the headline: Trouble In Vancouver’s Streets After Defeat. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe